Jamie Dupree’s Washington Insider

The Bidens host the Pences for transition talk

Vice President Biden and his wife welcomed Vice President-Elect Mike Pence and his wife in Washington, D.C. today, as Biden downplayed talk that the new administration won’t be ready to go to work on January 20, 2017.

“No administration is ready on day one,” Biden said. “We weren’t ready on day one.”

“But I’m confident on day one that everything will be in good hands,” Biden added, as the Vice President and his successor stood with their wives outside the official residence of the Vice President, which is located just over two miles from the White House.

In his long distance photo op for reporters, Biden said he had offered to help Pence any way he could.

“I told Mike, the Vice President-Elect, that I’m available to him twenty four-seven,” Biden said.

“We’re just very grateful for the hospitality today of the Vice President,” Pence said, adding that the two couples had a “very enjoyable time.”

Asked if he was worried that President-Elect Trump would dismantle many things that had been done by President Obama, Biden said he was not.

“I think there are a lot of things that were done, where we can reach some accommodation,” Biden said, without getting into details on the many things that Republicans see differently.

Along with having lunch, the Bidens gave the Pences a tour of the house that they will live in, along with the surrounding grounds, which sits next to the U.S. Naval Observatory.